LESSONS

At the Riding School, we offer group lessons of 3 to 5 riders which last for one hour at a time. Lessons are arranged not only to fit your schedule, but to match each rider with an appropriate animal and to place your rider in with others of similar age and experience. Careful placement will ensure success for your rider(s). Lessons are scheduled and billed based on a calendar month. One lesson a week is $195 each month. Two lessons a week is $350 per month. (this may be shared between 2 family members). If payment is not received by the 10th of the month, a $15 late fee is added to the tuition for that month.

REQUIRED ATTIRE

Riders shall come to lessons in the below required attire:

• ASTM approved horse riding helmet (NO bike helmets).
• Hard soled shoes that come over the ankle with a small heel.
• Long pants, NO shorts.
• Short sleeves (in the summer). NO spaghetti string tops.
• Long hair is to be tied back.
• Gloves are recommended in cold weather.

HELMETS

Although we provide helmets for new students to borrow, we highly recommend purchasing a riding approved helmet for your child when they start taking riding lessons. Contact the barn office if you need to know where to purchase an appropriate helmet.

LESSON DAY

Please ensure your rider has a water bottle at each lesson.

Allow an hour and a half for your lesson. Group lessons last for one hour. Please arrive for your lesson 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start of the lesson. Allow at least 10 minutes after the scheduled completion of the lesson to take care of the horse/pony.

WEATHER CANCELLATIONS

If we decide to cancel lessons due to weather conditions, the voicemail message will be changed to reflect this decision. Please call (804) 594-0760 to listen to the message. Right after the message is changed everybody scheduled for that day is called or texted to get makeups or ground lessons on the books. You must return our call or text for a make-up within a week. We save the time and day that we left in the message for you until you return the call, so if a day and time does not work for you, we need to be able to open it up for someone else. We really appreciate your help with this. Sometimes we need to schedule up to 60 lessons in a week!

CANCELLATIONS / MAKE-UPS

We require at least 24 hours notice if you are going to cancel your lesson. If you cancel your lesson with less than 24 hours notice we will not be able to schedule a make up lesson. When you cancel a lesson, you have 1 week to re-schedule a makeup, otherwise the lesson is forfeited. The list of pending makeup lessons gets too long if we do not stick to this policy.

Please also see Weather Cancellations below.

SAFETY

To keep the students, families, and horses safe we ask everyone follow these safety rules:

• Please do not run, yell, or throw rocks around the horses or barn area.
• Do not chew gum while riding.
• Please do not enter the barn or horses stalls without the supervision of an instructor.
• Do not mount your horse without the presence of an instructor.
• Do not feed the horses with their bridles on or without seeking permission from an instructor.

PAYMENT

●One lesson a week is $185 per month ● Two lessons a week is $340 per month. (This may be shared between 2 family members) ● Tuition is due by the 1st of the month. ● We take PayPal, cash, or check- no cards. ● Checks may be made out to “JREC”. ● PayPal e-mail is “jrrsmanager@gmail.com”. If you pay via PayPal, your tuition will incur a convenience fee- you owe $191.00 per month instead of $185.00, or $350.00 instead of $340.00. You must manually enter these amounts. Tuition is considered LATE after the 10th of each month, regardless if you have been to the barn before the 10th or not. If you pay your tuition after the 10th of the month a $15.00 late fee needs to be included in the amount. Two possible options to avoid the late fee are to use your banks Automatic Bill Pay system to mail us a check at the beginning of the month or to use PayPal. There is also a gold mailbox outside the office where payment can be left if no one is at the barn, and you may also mail in your payment if you know that you will not be at the barn before the 10th of the month to: 414 Huguenot Trail Midlothian, VA 23113

HOURS

WINTER SCHEDULE Monday -Thursday 2:00 - 6:30 Friday Closed Saturday & Sunday 12:30 - 3:30 SUMMER SCHEDULE Monday -Thursday 3:00 - 7:30 Friday Closed Saturday & Sunday 9:00 - 12:30

HOLIDAYS

The School is closed on the following dates: ● New Year's Day ● Easter Sunday ● July 4th ● Memorial Day ● Labor Day ● Thanksgiving Day ● Christmas Eve ● Christmas Day Lessons that would normally fall on these days will not be rescheduled with the exception of Christmas Eve. If you are scheduled to ride on Christmas Eve, we will move that lesson to either the Friday before or after Christmas. If you are able to attend this makeup day, you will not miss this lesson for the month. No other makeup lesson will be offered for Christmas Eve.

EQUINE RELEASE FORM

Every student at The Riding School must have a completed and signed Equine Release Form on file. Download the form below and return the completed form to the Riding School Manager.